TORONTO — The Blue Jays caught a break by missing Paul Skenes and Jared Jones this weekend, but anyone watching Toronto’s hitters face Pittsburgh’s starters wouldn’t necessarily know it.
With triple-digit fastballs and secondary stuff to match, Skenes and Jones are emerging as cornerstone pitchers for the Pirates and leading candidates in this year’s NL Rookie of the Year race. Missing them appeared to be a real coup.
But after Bailey Falter held the Blue Jays scoreless for six innings Friday, Mitch Keller limited them to one run over six innings Saturday, and this time Toronto’s pitching couldn’t keep pace. An uncharacteristically rough outing from Yusei Kikuchi set the Blue Jays back early, and they never caught up, losing 8-1 to the Pirates in front of 36,484 at Rogers Centre.
“We just didn’t get anything going, really,” manager John Schneider said. “(Keller) made his mistakes but we didn’t do much with them (and) he got on a little bit of a roll.”
With the loss, the Blue Jays’ season-best four-game winning streak ends and their record falls to 27-30. Collecting just six hits as a team, the Blue Jays never made this one close, and the positive vibes that followed Davis Schneider’s Friday night walk-off homer ebbed a little.
The Pirates rallied early against Kikuchi, who felt he got a little too predictable. Plus, his slider and curve caught too much of the plate, especially in two-strike counts. That combination allowed the Pirates to score three in a first inning highlighted by a Ke'Bryan Hayes two-run home run.
“Going into the next start, I’ll start mixing up my pitches more,” Kikuchi said through interpreter Yusuke Oshima. “I’m 10-plus starts into the season, so obviously the other teams are going to make adjustments as well. I’ll look back at the data and be better the next time.”
To his credit, the left-hander found a rhythm as the game progressed, his fastball topped out at 97.8 m.p.h. and he struck out four hitters — an improvement from his last outing six days ago in Detroit when he failed to record a single strikeout. Still, the Pirates had no trouble connecting against Kikuchi on their way to six runs (five earned) on nine hits.
“I thought he settled in pretty well,” Schneider said. “When he’s pitching and locating, he’s pretty damn good. If you look at the last two (starts), it’s been breaking balls in the zone a little bit too much.”
Offensively, there were few highlights for the Blue Jays, though Vladimir Guerrero Jr. and Daniel Vogelbach each had two-hit days. On defence, George Springer added a couple more diving catches to his highlight reel in support of the Blue Jays' pitching staff.
"He's been great," Schneider said of Springer. "Great reactions. He's such a good athlete and he has really good closing speed."
Even after Kikuchi left the game, the Pirates kept adding on as Bryan Reynolds took Brendon Little deep with a two-run homer in the eighth inning. Little had only been added to the roster a few hours earlier as an injury replacement for Jordan Romano, who was placed on the injured list with right elbow inflammation.
The move puts further stress on a bullpen that’s underperformed for much of the season and has had to pitch at least seven innings twice in their last three games. Thankfully for the Blue Jays, an MRI revealed no structural issues for Romano, who felt soreness after pitching Wednesday in Chicago.
Back on March 19, a related issue led Romano to take an anti-inflammatory injection, and his season debut was delayed until April 16. This current issue is comparable in some ways, but no injection is currently scheduled — just treatment and medication.
“Similar,” Schneider said. “Trying to just not push through it. In terms of timeline compared to spring, we don’t know yet. We’ll see after a couple days of not throwing how he is.”
In the meantime, Yimi Garcia likely slides into the closer’s role with Chad Green also expected to pitch plenty of high leverage innings.
On Sunday, the series against the Pirates wraps up with Chris Bassitt on the mound for the Blue Jays. The opposing starter has yet to be announced, but the Blue Jays need better results against whoever they’re facing if they’re going to end this winnable stretch of games on a high note.
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